Sony Vaio - Always Overheating
13 December 2005
About a year ago Charlie bought a
Since then it has begun to
So I ventured over to PC World to purchase her a laptop cooling device, I selected the CoolerMaster Notepal cooler, which is basically an aluminium stand with two inbuilt fans that run off the Laptops USB port. So far we’ve had good results with the computer staying on for 2 hours and the processor sticking at around 33oC and no freezing. For £20 it was a really worthwhile purchase and hopefully will prevent her laptop from melting down through constant overheating. It’s just a shame that Sony cannot build a computer that is better at dissipating heat, after Google’ing the problem it seems that nearly all Sony Vaio’s using a P4 processor are prone to overheating.
My advice, don’t buy a Vaio!
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January 07, 2006 at 11:25 PM I have exactly the same problem with my Sony Vaio P4 3.06Ghz I downloaded SpeedFan today to find the temperature of my CPU is now 63oC ... it seems to be running fine, so I do not know if this is an acceptable temp., however, I was playing music on the computer last night and the bottom of the computer did get very hot, and the music starting to freeze and stutter. I did not have Speedfan then, so do not know what the temp. had risen to, but it certainly felt a lot hotter than it does now. Having read on numerous sites about the problem, I have proceeded to clean and hoover all the entry and exit vents on the computer, but didn't really feel they were blocked up too much. I am in Cork in Ireland, and we do not have a PCWorld here, but will certainly make it my business to purchase the cooler mat ASAP. And YES, I also bought the Sony Vaio laptop for its beautiful black screen, which does have a great, clear display. If the cooler mat does solve the problem (which it does sound like it will), I wouldn;t advise against buying the Sony Vaio range, just to be aware of this problem, and perhaps be prepared to spend another £20 (€30).
January 07, 2006 at 11:37 PM 63oC seems very hot for a computer to run, most are set to shutdown at about 80oC to protect the motherboard and processor. My desktop PC runs at about 35oC. Most new laptops run on Centrino or Mobile processors, which tend to run at an acceptable temperature. In fact, a friend of my girlfriend has the same laptop but the Celeron version and that does not experience any overheating problems, although I'd say Celeron is probably not a good processor to get! Check the Coolermaster website to find a local reseller, the Notepal works well if you are using your laptop on a desk, it holds it at a nice angle for working as well.
February 02, 2006 at 11:32 PM My friend's Vaio PCG-FRV31 is a Celeron based processor and really heats a lot, doing the 10secs turbo-fan on/off, extremely annoying. First I thought of disconnecting the fan thinking the temperature sensor must be wrong, but of course checking the temperature - it DOES overheat! Better not disconnect anything. Sorry but there seems to be no other solution but make a better cooling system for it. Something must be very wrong though, since Sony can't fix it with a Bios, firmware or something update. Sorry for them.
February 05, 2006 at 09:58 AM Yeah, I think the laptops with processors with higher than P3 but not Centrino or Pentium M are having big heat problems. Shame the laptop manufacturers couldn't have thought about this more, Apple knew there was no way they could ship a G5 iBook or Powerbook. I think my girlfriend would've been happier with her Vaio if Sony had this foresight.
June 18, 2006 at 04:45 PM My VAIO PIV 3.06Ghz (GRT996ZP) is heating up to 81C when it's crunching number and it does not seem to shutdown at all, but I usually stop my testing when the temperature reaches to that point. Operating temperature running at 1.6Ghz is around 50C. I don't know whether this was a problem since I bought it a year ago. I just become conscious of this after installing some temperature measurement software (noticed fan is blowing really hard recently, wondered whether it was because of the hot summer days or a problem.). Before this I could just leave the computer on for hours doing lots of number crunching tasks trusting that it will eventually shutdown if the CPU gets too hot. Compared to yours my temperature readings are really over the top. There are several conclusions: 1. You can let your VAIO run up to 80C and it can take it, mine is the living proof. 2. VAIO does not shutdown at 81C. (I don't dare to try the limit) 3. It seems that I have a serious problem with my VAIO. Of course the temperature reading might not be correct or accurrate, but as far as I can observe the speed of the fan and the feel of the blowing air seems to correspond with what I see on the temperature chart. I am not so pessimistic about buying a new VAIO. This is my 2nd VAIO, the other one is still working without any problem for the 4th year after all my abuses. I don't think you can find another portable much like a VAIO from other brands as far as the display, processing power and price/quality ratio concerned. Ok. There are heating problems with P3 and above but you can run them with lower clock speeds (you can select adaptive processor speed) when you are not doing computationally hard tasks. Unless you are into number crunching like I do, chances that you will need extra processing speed is not that big on a laptop. After all you don't want to slurp up the battery when you are on the road. Most of the time the need is episodic, for ex. when you start up an application, update a huge table in Excel etc. The good thing is when you need this extra boost it will be there on a PIV. I don't think forcing manufacturers to stick to P3 is not a good solution. BTW. A couple of friends have compared the G4 and the Intel based Macs using the same programs. Intel processor has a better performance even the program is not native Intel. (Apple has an internal interpreter converting G4 instructions to Intel ones for non-native Intel application which adds an extra overhead for Intel.)
June 25, 2006 at 11:00 PM It is possible in many cases to fix (semipermanently) the VAIO overheat issue. Semipermanently in the sense that once it's fixed, you need to keep it clean, or it will clog again. I fixed mine by disassembly, THOROUGH cleaning of the heatsink/fan/heatpipe assembly, replacing heatsink compound with better quality stuff, and reassembly, following instructions at www.vaioshutdown.com (didn't use their paid service though - thanks, guys) - on the other hand, neither they nor anyone else had detailed info on disassembling my machine (every VAIO model is different). I considered myself lucky to have nothing broken and no leftover screws when finished reassembly. if you don't like the company (some don't like their advertising on sites like this, and grump about them) google "vaio overheating repair" and in the weeds you will find others who have repaired theirs. It's worth trying the vacuum cleaner first, cleaning the air path through the input and output ports, though on my model if I vacuumed from the back, I pulled the dust bunnies farther into the heatsink, and only sucking from the bottom would have removed them (had I known that ahead of time - but now I know how mine is laid out internally I can reguarly hit the bottom vents with a vacuum before it gets too bad.). My computer had been overheating & shutting off, first only during extreme use (videos, fractals), then becoming increasingly bad, until regular use had the fan at highest speed all the time, and shutdowns happened randomly. After cleaning, fan runs at lowest speed, or inaudibly slow, except under 70-100% CPU use. I'm still looking for a temperature monitor program that works with this motherboard.
July 04, 2006 at 12:48 AM I'm sorry to hear about all your problems with your Sony, but I hope other people read this, and take your advice to heart. Let me say that I love Sony, they are my preferred brand for audio/visual equipment, my main stereo system,and my 51" HDTV are Sony, and I'm pleased with them greatly. NOW, I have to say that Sony's PCs are designed for looks and style alone, and are NOT designed for extended or heavy usage. My company's marketing department ran out and bought 10 Sony's because they were, "so pretty"....3 months later, half had gone back, 2 within the first week! In all instances, we were required to fax a copy of the sales receipt (including the 2 that died almost immediately) before receiving any assistance other than, "Is it plugged in?" Not to mention Sony has to do everything proprietarily, proprietary software, design, drivers everything. Again, I LOVE SONY, but their PCs are garbage..... And as for Blu-Ray, I may be wrong, but does anyone else remember BetaMax....?
July 11, 2006 at 06:51 PM Does anyone have instructions for pulling a Vaio PCG-K415B apart? Mine is running at 65C and the noise of the fan is driving me nuts. Post here or email edal@freestart.hu. Thanks Ed Almos Budapest
July 12, 2006 at 08:17 AM I have a Sony Vaio V505AX. When I first purchased it, I never really noticed a difference in the heat versus my father's IBM laptop. However, after using an after-market replacement battery, I noticed that it did get "burn your skin" hot. So I found that Sony said do not use after-market batteries, replaced it agian with a Sony battery, and it seemed fine. Then all of a sudden it made a weird noise like the fan or hard drive was dying on me, I shut down. Then, re-started and the sound went on for a few seconds and stopped. Now things feel rather hot like the fan is not running at full speed. I tried that software, Speedfan, and got a reading of 45 which sounds average for a laptop. (Very cool software I might add). I might try getting one of those USB cooler things but I guess the price of having a Sony is a hot lap. Overall, I'm happy with my computer and I won't worry about the heat until I see the temperature rise.
August 11, 2006 at 07:39 PM Like everyone else, I was having overheating issues with my VAIO PCG-GRT260G. After reading up on the internet and not finding any specifics for my model, I decided to just tear into it myself. I found a huge amount of dust clogging up all the heat sinks. Simple process to clean it out once you do it once, and now it's running like new again. Wrote up a simple document that hopefully will help someone else... http://www.hibco.com/vaio
August 24, 2006 at 07:48 PM My VAIO PCG-K15, a 2.8ghz P4, is DEAD from overheating. It was running hotter and hotter until one night I ejected a DVD, noticed it felt extra hot and went to sleep. Next morning kaput. The power adapter had shutdown, possibly a thermal breaker of its own, causing the laptop to run from battery power, which probably only added to the overheating! I got a repair estimate of over $600. No more Sony laptops for me.
August 24, 2006 at 09:13 PM GJW, a similar thing happened to me with my previous VAIO. While I was working VAIO turned itself off, and never turned back on again, there were no lights or anything. Being an electronics engineer, I opened the VAIO and looked for fuses or diodes which could be broken and they seemed to be ok. I tried many things for a few days but never got it working. Anyway, I sent my VAIO to Sony Service Center (it was out of warranty btw.). A few days later I got a call from Sony that there was nothing wrong with my VAIO and shipped it back I tried my VAIO (with the same power adapter and all) and it was working... So was there something like a capacitor which needed to be discharged I don't know, it was such a mystery. Sony did never charged me either, so if there was something wrong they would have charged me...The other option is of course, there was something wrong (factory fault, design fault) which they did not want me to know... Just to let you know...
August 25, 2006 at 03:39 AM Nihat, thanks for the hope. I'll hold on to the old thing for awhile and maybe it will someday run again. I'm looking forward to my next laptop, figuring it will run at least twice as fast, twice as long, and definitely cooler. My old laptop harddrive is now the bootdrive for the Dell Poweredge 700 server I am running XP Pro on as a desktop machine. Cheers...
August 27, 2006 at 05:25 PM My Vaio has returned from the dead! After the post by Nihat I dug it out and plugged it in. At first still nothing. I decided not to open it up and just futzed around. I removed the battery. I plugged it in and noticed the green light on the adapter blink. I checked with a volt meter to verify it was working. I recalled that the light had gone out the morning my Vaio PCG-K15 had died. I plugged the adpater back into the laptop a few times. At first no flickers just steady, then just went out. I unplugged adapter from power and plugged back in again every so often and in about ten minutes green light came on again. I plugged adapter into laptop and laptop came alive! While still running I reinstalled battery. I restarted a couple of times bashing keys to get into bios and all seemed well enough considering I had removed the hard drive. (see previous) I booted up with Dynebolic boot cd and all seems working so far except no wifi support. However, I could definitely smell burnt something coming out the vents. ?!#@$#@!$@
August 27, 2006 at 07:24 PM Well, it all resembles what happened to my VAIO. Nice to hear that it works GJW... Mine did the same.
August 31, 2006 at 02:12 PM I fixed my 2.8 p4 the other day, fans still run all the time (thanks Sony! Can I get a refund on this hot brick?) but the system doesn't get NEARLY as hot (staying in the 36-38c range) as it was before. The solution? Here's the fun part: Take laptop apart to get to the heatsink / processor (mine is an FRV28, so the assembly covers both the graphics proc. and the p4). You'll have to take off the metal plate that covers the 4-spring loaded screws to the fan / heatsink assembly. Now when thats off, take the fans out and give the metal piece a good washing. You'll be amazed at what's in there... all kinds of bunniez Now after that's all dry scrape the old white paste off the bottom of the heatsink assembly and on the top of the processor. Make sure it's good and gone. Now apply your favorite thermal paste (Arctic Silver 5 is quality stuff, or my favorite thermal paste quick fix - JB Weld which, actually works quite well!) Re-install all the hardware, but let it dry over night. Next morning the laptop will run alot cooler, I promise. Got the idea after I saw a MacBook pro heat-fix, and did it for a friend last week. I was thinking, damn I wonder if that at least (somewhat) cool my Sony p4 laptop down... Well the results are in and it worked really good for me: Before conversion: 56-62c After conversion: 36-45c Big change for me with just the new thermal paste, let me know if this works for you!
September 24, 2006 at 01:16 PM I have a Sony VAIO PCG-FR315M which to be honest hasnt been a brilliant laptop, i bought it in 2004, mainly for it's much higher specification than the others on the market, it has a 2.6 P4, and it won't stop overheating, it always ran with the fan on, which i was disspointed with at first because i wanted silence, however, over the last year the overheating has been a real problem, it never runs below 70oC, no matter what i'm doing. i cant get inside it and have hoovered it several times. if i try to charge my ipod or phone using it, the temperature shoots straight up to 90 and then it turns itself off. if im playing music it run at around 85, i knew vaios overheated but having read this thread mine seems to be abnormally high? If i play a game such as the Sims i get about 5 minutes before it shutsdown, or i have to stand it on books to let air get in.. which is stupid.. i paid £1000 for this and should have got better.. It's got to the point now where im wanting a new laptop because of the constant fan humming and speeding up/down. i really like the vaio range but I can't see my ever buying another, the DVD drive broke after a year, it barely reads CD's and wont write them at all, im not sure what caused it, but judging on how hot the CD's were when they came out it wouldnt suprise me if it was the heat that did it in. It's a shame because it was a lovely looking laptop at the time, looks a bit bulky now mind. Chris!
September 25, 2006 at 03:58 PM I have a VGN A217M - its only a P4 1.6 But lately its been getting hotter and hotter, and I have undone all the screws and i couldnt figure out why I couldnt get into it. So i just bought some comrpessed air and blew into every slot I could. Anyway I have run SpeedFan 4.29 and it says HD01 - 40C & Temp1 86C There is no reference to CPU temp or anything, so if anyone can shed some light on this. Oh yes it was so hot the otherday, that it shut down and the HD wouldnt boot up, kept on saying there was no HD, so off for 2 hours and it came back. Any help would be appreciated. Scott thebritscott@hotmail.com
October 04, 2006 at 12:26 AM For the A217, simply snap out the keyboard with a small screwdriver. Carefully remove the ribbon cable for the keyboard and leave to one site. This will expose two more screws that need removing. Carefully remove the two ribbon cables for the front LED's etc. You'll then be able to take off the top of the case, giving access to everything. I was able to get to the heatsink easily from here. However, I was unsuccessful in being able to remove it, but was able to remove enough clump of dust to sort of the problem. Hope this helps, Darren
October 04, 2006 at 12:10 PM Mate, that's awesome thanks! One SILENT Vaio once more :) Joe www.banskoflats.com
October 04, 2006 at 09:48 PM Darren thanks for that, it now says my ACPI is down to 46C which is alot less than the 86 i was getting. Just ordered a heat sink thingy for the laptop to help keep it cool as well, because out here in thailand its too hot! Thanks Again Scott
October 06, 2006 at 03:28 PM I dont own a Sony VAIO, but I was just wondering is the heat problem caused by the bad Lithium batterys that Sony makes? Like the sony batterys used in Dell laptops, that made them go on fire... Martin
October 07, 2006 at 03:21 AM Not at all. On my computer the (which is near 2 years now so no faulty battery) suffers from heat over the CPU (back left above the number keys) and above the hard disk (which is bottom left where your palm rests). The battery (bottom right) is cool to the touch. Its just bad design I think, but then again, I did spill a cup of tea into my computer about 1 year ago, so I dont think that helped matters. Also now that I live in Thailand, the average temperature in my house is about 32C so there is not much "cool" air about. I have just ordered a Laptop cooler as well, so that should help as well. What I would like to do with this laptop now though, is change the CPU to something faster if that is possible. I will have to do some more research on the web for that. But I think the battery doesn't matter at all. Scott
October 09, 2006 at 04:41 AM I have a Vaio PCG-K15 and my computer runs VERY loud. Im not very computer smart, but I have had a few people take a look at it and no one can ever seem to find the problem. This looks like a trend with these computers...has anyone figured out a way to get the fan to quiet down? On another note...my computer does get very hot, but only when it is not on a flat surface. On a table top or desk its fine, on the bed/couch, my lap...extreemly hot. So ive learned to keep it to the desk. :)
October 21, 2006 at 09:57 PM I bought my Sony VAIO PCG-K25 (P4 2.8 GHz) about 2 years back. I have been using it almost every day for some really heavy number crunching (real-time computer vision and scientific simulations) and although it does get very hot (can't keep it on my lap), it has never freezed on me. I would suggest keeping it on a hard surface.. so that the base of the laptop is properly ventilated.
October 27, 2006 at 08:02 AM Hi, Do any of you have problems with the harddrive overheating in your Vaio? In my Sony Vaio PCG-4B1M the Toshiba 40GB harddrive heats up to 60-65C which makes the back really hot! Also the XP installation died on me once. Just got it up and running from a ghost backup but I am unsure if this will last... Regards, Johan
October 28, 2006 at 04:08 PM I have PCG K415B and had this problem a few months ago, getting ridiculously high temperatures and the laptop was shutting itself down. However, after getting a pressurised airduster can and thoroughly attacking the machine it has been running smoothly ever since. gjb
November 11, 2006 at 01:01 PM does anybody know how to get inside a VAIO PCG-FR315M ? ive taken out all the screws and couldnt move anything from then..